Milupa Aptimil promoting breastfeeding ...

[WigWamBam]

On the Home page there's a link to a site run by Milupa Aptimil claiming to be promoting breastfeeding and offering support lines and so on. If you click on the picture, you're taken to a site purporting to be promoting breastfeeding.

Now, before I get jumped on from a great height, can I say that I have no problem with formula feeding, or with advertising for formula feeding, or with Mumsnet having advertising from a formula company. I'm not interested in yet another breast v bottle feeding barny. But I have to admit to feeling rather odd about a breast-feeding site created by a formula company. Is this cynical marketing, or am I missing something? I wonder what kind of advice someone struggling with breast-feeding would get from their helplines?

Interesting.
Of course the bloody formula came up!Knew it would.
I'll leave an e mail question. I don't think I could justify anexpensive overseas call on a whim to dh when he gets the bill!

They r trying to be very crafty. I think if mums in the early days of feeding that were nervous and didnt have other sources like MN could easily be swayed by the advice given on the phone. It makes me sooo angry that they can get away with using breastfeeding to advertise formula.Moondog let us know how u get on with the email!

Just seen this thread.

Formula milk companies are no different from any other company - they have to make money, and any marketing they do has to be linked with that. In marketing terms, Milupa's strategy is to be rather upmarket - that way, they reach mothers who start off breastfeeding. Long term this is highly profitable, as mothers who start off breastfeeding and then switch keep their babies on formula (as opposed to other drinks inc ordinary milk) for longer than mothers who start off on formula. I can't remember where I read this, but it is true, I assure you!

So they advertise (or write paid-for editorial, which is the same thing) not in the News of the World, but in the Independent. Their ads/paid for editorial emphasise health, relationships, closeness, protection against infection....all the stuff you might associate with breastfeeding, in fact. The imagery and language of breastfeeding is hi-jacked in the interests of formula sales.

It is well-throught out, and long term. They have got through to healthcare professionals already - how many times do we read here or hear from mothers that when asked, healthcare professionals recommend Aptamil? This happens far more often than their market share would suggest. SMA and Cow&Gate sell themselves - they are available everywhere, and people's mothers and grandmothers used them. Milupa (actually owned by the same people who make SMA, but it makes no sense to compete directly, of course) has to be more subtle, by carving out a brand image, which takes time.

My guess is that Milupa are aiming to be the 'posh' formula, used by would-be breastfeeding mothers.

I am certain they will watch the internet discussion boards, and may well see this thread.

It would be very bad marketing to have a helpline actively pushing formula - they need to retain some shred of credibility after all. But it is no surprise at all that the helpline made the suggestion, eventually, to use formula when icklelulu rang.

Hold on, though, isn't it a little naive to expect a formula milk company not to try to sell its product? Like it or not, they want to make money. Bit like ringing a tobacco company help-line for advice on quitting. I'm not saying I agree with these tactics and it would be great to force them to stop advertising in such an underhand way but I don't think we should be surprised.

i went to the link and read the page it went to and my thought was "it must be one of those breastfeeding promotion sites" as i don't know what milupa is (i bottlefed DD on SMA and didn't really look at the other brands). i think it is misleading and a bit cheeky to say breastfeeding is best when you try to sell the alternative.

I know I am very late coming into any of these conversations and people are trying to let them die but I just wanted to admit that I fell hook line and sinker for Aptamil's advertising when I supplmented my DD with formula at the age of 20 weeks.

I felt some pressure to try formula since all my friends' babies of the same age were sleeping through the night and all had had a small amount of formula at sometime. I went into the shop and was totally the person they have been targetting. I must buy the best for MY baby so I bought whatever was the most expensive and had the most upmarket packaging. I did not want to get SMA or C&G, which seemed familiar hence common to me (sorry if that sounds snobby) And yes, I was also won over by the LCPs and a load of other so-called nutritional info. that I didn't really understand. I smugly believed I was using the 'best' formula milk available.

And of course, DD didn;t sleep through the night with the introdusction of formula

Beatie, you are most definitely not alone - don't - they are very cynical with their marketing (as you can see by the way they flout the law, then just pay the fine, and continue with the next dodgy campaign).

Beatie and HM you are two of many, incluidng me. I think it is entirely understandable that people make those choices and frankly having made my decision to combine breast and bottle I, like any other consumer of any other product, made my decision around the information I had. That included information from a number of places, including if I remember rightly MN that LCP are improtant for good brain development and these are available in fish oil amongst other things.

I was told by the midwives at the hospital where dd3 was born that aptimil was the best formula for her. she had to be formula fed for 24hours due to low blood sugers, as attempts at expressing colostrum hadnt been enough to raise her sugar levels enough. i voiced my concerns about allergies etc (my other 2 dd have various allergies), and the most amazing midwife held off SCBU for 6hours whilst we tried to raise dd3 blood sugars by feeding every hour and expressing as well. I cried when the 1st feed was done via her tube. i felt like i had failed (and also probably the fact that it was 11pm and i had hardly slept). Aptimil was the one that the hospital suggested, and i admit that i bought loads of the cartons when they were cheap in superdrug (OMG, i just relaised, does that mean they broke the code thingy??) for using in her cereals etc as am not that good at expressing.